Archives
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Recent Posts
- CA11: Service of SW without attachments isn’t 4A violation
- KS: Running warrants on a passed out person is reasonable
- M.D.Fla.: Unidentified pills in driver’s lap may have been RS but it wasn’t PC for arrest
- D.C.Cir.: It was reasonable for officers to conclude that evidence or instrumentalities of the crime would be found in the car used in a robbery
- CA7: Officer’s warrantless view of CSAM flagged by hash value was not unreasonable
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ABA Journal Web 100, Best Law Blogs (2015-17) (then discontinued)
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by John Wesley Hall
Criminal Defense Lawyer and
Search and seizure law consultant
Little Rock, Arkansas
Contact: forhall @ aol.com
Search and Seizure (6th ed. 2025)
www.johnwesleyhall.com -
© 2003-26,
online since Feb. 24, 2003 Approx. 600,000 visits (non-robot) since 2012 Approx. 50,000 posts since 2003 (29,000 on WordPress as of 12/31/25) -
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Fourth Amendment cases, citations, and links -
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Stringrays (ACLU No. Cal.) (pdf)
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Congressional Research Service:
--Electronic Communications Privacy Act (2012)
--Overview of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (2012)
--Outline of Federal Statutes Governing Wiretapping and Electronic Eavesdropping (2012)
--Federal Statutes Governing Wiretapping and Electronic Eavesdropping (2012)
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"If it was easy, everybody would be doing it. It isn't, and they don't."
—Me -
"Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well."
–Josh Billings (pseudonym of Henry Wheeler Shaw), Josh Billings on Ice, and Other Things (1868) (erroneously attributed to Robert Louis Stevenson, among others) -
“I am still learning.”
—Domenico Giuntalodi (but misattributed to Michelangelo Buonarroti (common phrase throughout 1500's)). -
"Love work; hate mastery over others; and avoid intimacy with the government."
—Shemaya, in the Thalmud -
"It is a pleasant world we live in, sir, a very pleasant world. There are bad people in it, Mr. Richard, but if there were no bad people, there would be no good lawyers."
—Charles Dickens, “The Old Curiosity Shop ... With a Frontispiece. From a Painting by Geo. Cattermole, Etc.” 255 (1848) -
"A system of law that not only makes certain conduct criminal, but also lays down rules for the conduct of the authorities, often becomes complex in its application to individual cases, and will from time to time produce imperfect results, especially if one's attention is confined to the particular case at bar. Some criminals do go free because of the necessity of keeping government and its servants in their place. That is one of the costs of having and enforcing a Bill of Rights. This country is built on the assumption that the cost is worth paying, and that in the long run we are all both freer and safer if the Constitution is strictly enforced."
—Williams v. Nix, 700 F. 2d 1164, 1173 (8th Cir. 1983) (Richard Sheppard Arnold, J.), rev'd Nix v. Williams, 467 US. 431 (1984). -
"The criminal goes free, if he must, but it is the law that sets him free. Nothing can destroy a government more quickly than its failure to observe its own laws, or worse, its disregard of the charter of its own existence."
—Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643, 659 (1961). -
"Any costs the exclusionary rule are costs imposed directly by the Fourth Amendment."
—Yale Kamisar, 86 Mich.L.Rev. 1, 36 n. 151 (1987). -
"There have been powerful hydraulic pressures throughout our history that bear heavily on the Court to water down constitutional guarantees and give the police the upper hand. That hydraulic pressure has probably never been greater than it is today."
— Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 39 (1968) (Douglas, J., dissenting). -
"The great end, for which men entered into society, was to secure their property."
—Entick v. Carrington, 19 How.St.Tr. 1029, 1066, 95 Eng. Rep. 807 (C.P. 1765) -
"It is a fair summary of history to say that the safeguards of liberty have frequently been forged in controversies involving not very nice people. And so, while we are concerned here with a shabby defrauder, we must deal with his case in the context of what are really the great themes expressed by the Fourth Amendment."
—United States v. Rabinowitz, 339 U.S. 56, 69 (1950) (Frankfurter, J., dissenting) -
"The course of true law pertaining to searches and seizures, as enunciated here, has not–to put it mildly–run smooth."
—Chapman v. United States, 365 U.S. 610, 618 (1961) (Frankfurter, J., concurring). -
"A search is a search, even if it happens to disclose nothing but the bottom of a turntable."
—Arizona v. Hicks, 480 U.S. 321, 325 (1987) -
"For the Fourth Amendment protects people, not places. What a person knowingly exposes to the public, even in his own home or office, is not a subject of Fourth Amendment protection. ... But what he seeks to preserve as private, even in an area accessible to the public, may be constitutionally protected."
—Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 351 (1967) -
“Experience should teach us to be most on guard to protect liberty when the Government’s purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded
rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.”
—United States v. Olmstead, 277 U.S. 438, 479 (1925) (Brandeis, J., dissenting)
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“Liberty—the freedom from unwarranted intrusion by government—is as easily lost through insistent nibbles by government officials who seek to do their jobs too well as by those whose purpose it is to oppress; the piranha can be as deadly as the shark.”
—United States v. $124,570, 873 F.2d 1240, 1246 (9th Cir. 1989) -
"You can't always get what you want / But if you try sometimes / You just might find / You get what you need."
—Mick Jagger & Keith Richards, Let it Bleed (album, 1969) -
"In Germany, they first came for the communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a communist. Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for
the Catholics and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Catholic. Then they came
for me–and by that time there was nobody left to speak up."
—Martin Niemöller (1945) [he served seven years in a concentration camp] -
“Children grow up thinking the adult world is ordered, rational, fit for purpose. It’s crap. Becoming a man is realising that it’s all rotten. Realising how to celebrate that rottenness, that’s freedom.”
– John le Carré, The Night Manager (1993), line by Richard Roper -
"The point of the Fourth Amendment, which often is not grasped by zealous officers, is not that it denies law enforcement the support of the usual inferences which reasonable men draw from evidence. Its protection consists in requiring that those inferences be drawn by a neutral and detached magistrate instead of being judged by the officer engaged in the often competitive enterprise of ferreting out crime."
—Johnson v. United States, 333 U.S. 10, 13-14 (1948) -
The book was dedicated in the first (1982) and sixth (2025) editions to Justin William Hall (1975-2025). He was three when this project started in 1978.
Website design by Wally Waller, Colorado Springs. 
Monthly Archives: August 2017
N.D.Tex.: Def was arrested in a prostitution sting and his car was on a parking lot; govt fails to show impoundment proper
Defendant was arrested in a prostitution sting, and his car was impounded and searched. The court suppresses the search under the community caretaking function for not following the rules of the department. The government has the burden on a warrantless … Continue reading
WI: Eight prior OWIs and failing FST is reasonable suspicion
Defendant’s eight prior OWI convictions and being on extended supervision and failing a FST was reasonable suspicion. State v. Wortman, 2017 Wisc. App. LEXIS 622 (Aug. 23, 2017). Defense counsel was not ineffective for not moving to suppress his stop … Continue reading
44 years ago today I got the bar results
Saturday, August 25th, 12:20 pm, sent by Western Union telegram to the City Desk of the Arkansas Gazette from Hot Springs arriving shortly afternoon. Telegram …. Faxes didn’t exist yet.
E.D.Mo.: Def stayed often enough with his mother that he had standing in her place
Defendant was given standing in his mother’s home, even though he did not live there full time. His uncle also lived there, and he had apparent authority and “free agency” to consent to a search of the premises. United States … Continue reading
W.D.Pa.: CSLI warrant based on CI’s statement was with PC
The CSLI warrant here was based on probable cause from a CI. “In sum, the Affidavit was not required to contain a statement regarding the confidential informant’s reliability and its absence is not dispositive of the reliability determination or the … Continue reading
N.D.W.Va.: GFE generally doesn’t apply to warrantless searches
Defendant’s wife did not voluntarily consent to the police entry into the basement of her bar. First, they detained defendant behind the bar. Then police came to the bar in great numbers (6-15, depending on the witness) while the bar … Continue reading
N.D.Iowa: Less intrusive measures to impoundment are not constitutionally required
The discretionary decision to impound defendant’s RV was reasonable under the Fourth Amendment. The officer’s primary concern was arresting the driver for an outstanding warrant, not searching the vehicle. It would have been left on a rural road and posed … Continue reading
E.D.Tex.: “The open fields doctrine allows searches based upon only visual observation.” Using a board to stir a tank was a search
A US Fish and Wildlife officer “interviewed Josh Monceaux who revealed that Williams fishes for and catches alligator snapping turtles in Texas and then sells them from his home in Elton, Louisiana. Monceaux also reported that Williams [G]oogle [E]arth* image … Continue reading
Two on RS: CA1 criminal case and a WI cop firing case
The stop and frisk all happened here within seconds, and the court finds that, while the question is close and not free from doubt, the evidence supports the district court’s conclusion that there was reasonable suspicion for the stop and … Continue reading
E.D.Va.: While def’s Navy commander in CA couldn’t authorize military search on a base in VA, GFE applies
Defendant was in the Navy, and, due to a potential rape allegation against him, a pretext text message was sent to him by NCIS on behalf of the alleged victim. Defendant was stationed in San Diego, but he was in … Continue reading
IL: 911 call about a beating in a house supported emergency entry and plain view; without record of suppression hearing, trial testimony can be used on appeal
911 was called because defendant had just beaten an alleged prostitute and people heard glass breaking and her yelling for help. Defendant admitted beating her. He failed to include a copy of the record of the suppression hearing in his … Continue reading
CA7: RS man was casing a store for robbery made it reasonable to believe he was armed for a frisk
The cases that apply to plaintiff’s Terry stop don’t necessarily apply to plaintiff’s frisk. Here, the precedents were too dissimilar, and defendants are entitled to qualified immunity for the frisk. Plaintiff was a “suspicious person” believed to be casing a … Continue reading
CA5: There is a common law right of access in SW materials by the target of the search
A search target has a common law right of access to the search warrant materials, but the case is remanded to the district court for more factual findings of why the target can’t get access. [The target did not raise … Continue reading
ZDNet: DOJ amends request for data from anti-Trump site
ZDNet: DOJ amends request for data from anti-Trump site by Stephanie Condon The Justice Department attempts to allay First and Fourth Amendment concerns but continues to seek data on visitors to an anti-Trump website. Infosecurity: DoJ Narrows Demands for Anti-Trump … Continue reading
Wisconsin Public Radio: Wisconsin Department Of Health Services Gets Input On Drug Testing For Food Stamp Applicants
Wisconsin Public Radio: Wisconsin Department Of Health Services Gets Input On Drug Testing For Food Stamp Applicants by Patty Murray: In the last budget, the state Legislature approved a measure requiring able-bodied adults with no dependents to be screened for … Continue reading
CA11: Order to Apple to unlock iPad was reasonable under All Writs Act and New York Telephone
The district court’s order to Apple to unlock defendant’s iPad was reasonable and appropriate under the All Writs Act and United States v. New York Telephone Co. Also, seizing an entire Facebook account wasn’t “open and shut” a general warrant, … Continue reading
CA9: Officers have to know of probation search waiver before the search to rely on it
The search of defendant’s car under a probation search condition was unreasonable but harmless error. The officers didn’t know of the waiver before the search. United States v. Job, 851 F.3d 889 (9th Cir. March 14, 2017), amended on rehearing … Continue reading
CA8: (1) In drug conspiracy case, the govt overcame staleness because of ongoing crime; (2) Issuance of SW in D.Neb. by non-cross designated USMJ in N.D.Iowa was subject to GFE
First, the search warrant in this drug conspiracy case wasn’t stale, although a long time had elasped during and between the times recorded in the affidavit of things that happened. While the evidence wasn’t strong, the deference accorded the issuing … Continue reading
KS: Delay from police and EMS attending rural motorcycle accident was exigency to dispense with BAC warrant
The state showed probable cause for DUI and exigency to dispense with a warrant. Defendant crashed his motorcycle in a park parking lot, and the bike hit a pedestrian. The officer arrived more than 10 minutes after it happened was … Continue reading
IN: A dog alert on a package wasn’t PC because it only proved the package could have been handled by somebody who might have used MJ legally
The state seized cash in a package for mailing for forfeiture and then sought to turn it over to the federal government. The owners sought to recover the cash. The court finds that the seizure of the cash was without … Continue reading